The steroid jungle

We can debate the significance of the Mitchell report on baseball’s doping problems – whether it’s too little too late, lip service or a significant, culture-changing event that will clean up America’s pastime. Or somewhere in between.

What isn’t debatable is that the only reason this issue has been confronted even to this level by major league baseball is … journalism.

Specifically, groundbreaking and courageous journalism by the San Francisco Chronicle on the BALCO/Barry Bonds debacle. Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada broke the BALCO scandal, revealing secret grand-jury testimony that blew the story open. They followed with “Game of Shadows,” a book that is to steroids in sports what Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was to the meat-packing industry a century before.

Also, Brendan Lyons of the Albany Times-Union broke the story of the Albany, N.Y., DA’s investigation which exposed the drug purchases of many of the players named in the Mitchell report.

Yes, both are Hearst newspapers, as is the P-I. But I’d be proud of both newspapers, no matter who owned them, for committing the resources and showing the backbone to get these important stories.

Faced with the threat of federal prison for refusing to name their sources, Williams and Fainaru-Wada hung tough, with the aggressive and skillful representation of Hearst’s General Counsel, Eve Burton, and First Amendment champion Jon Donnellan of Burton’s staff.

Commissioner Bud Selig freely admits that it was after he read “Game of Shadows” that he decided to task Mitchell with constructing the report released today.

Cynical about the role of journalism in society? Here’s a perfect example of what fearless reporting can accomplish.